insano:Naturally, this will be accompanied by an increase in monthly fees for streaming. It's the netflix way!

I'd be OK with an increase in cost if it meant having access to everything, and quicker access to new release stuff.

On the other hand, I do appreciate that Netflix is doing what it can to fight exorbitant licensing fees.

The US could really benefit from universal compulsory licensing - i.e. the rightsholders would have to allow access to their works for a statutorily defined fee to anyone who asks.

The current system just makes piracy very appealing. No one wants to have to deal with multiple accounts through multiple services just to get access to what they want. Make it simple and people will buy in - look at the success of iTunes, it has virtually everything, and for many people it's the go-to source for music. I don't want to juggle accounts with Netflix, Amazon, WB, Sony, and whoever else, I just want to pay one company one amount (even if it's more than the other amounts combined) and be able to have access to everything without a hassle.

TuteTibiImperes:I don't want to juggle accounts with Netflix, Amazon, WB, Sony, and whoever else, I just want to pay one company one amount (even if it's more than the other amounts combined) and be able to have access to everything without a hassle.

I agree with you there but it will never happen. Heck, remember when Netflix tried to split their service into two services? It doesn't seem like the trend is toward consolidation.

log_jammin:insano: Naturally, this will be accompanied by an increase in monthly fees for streaming. It's the netflix way!

huh. my bill for streaming hasn't increased since....ever.

When Netflix started charging separate fees for streaming and dvd rental and changing their subscription plans, they ipso facto raised prices on many of their customers. They did this without offering concurrent increases in the services they offered. In fact, they lost quite a bit of content around the same time if I remember correctly. This may not have affected you but it pissed off a lot of their customers. How soon we forget.

I remember when I first got my Roku box that I was FINALLY able to watch Tron: Legacy. Loaded it up in instant queue so I could watch it over and over, and a week later it was gone. It should be coming back eventually since Netflix has a deal with Disney to carry all their content beginning in 2016, and they've already got some stuff up.

And so it begins - the me-too fracturing of the on-line streaming services. This will mean in the States at least that you'll have 15-20 different companies offering packages that might have some overlapping content, but none will be worth paying full price for because none of them will have everything. Then they'll start buying eachother in order to consolidate.

I'm in Canada. In Canada, in each market, there's a cable provider or a VDSL provider (Shaw Cable, or in other markets, Rogers Cable, or Telus, or Bell) to choose from, and the satellite provider colludes with the cable provider. The price for a standard high def package with about 80 worthless channels(a golf channel? one channel that only shows those stupid 'murder documentary' shows) and a few good ones (SPAAAAACE) is about $120 a month. And if you have cable, you probably have a bandwidth cap of 250 GB/month. And because you only get two choices, there's no real competition, because if you get mad at one, you go to the other, and then get mad at them and go to the other. I'm a bit lucky because i have VDSL delivering TV so bandwidth is not capped not monitored because it has to allow for the TV shows to get through.

The same problem plagues our cell phone spectrum. You have Bell, Telus, and Rogers, and they own all of the little wireless companies so you might see ads for "Koodo" but it's really just Telus under another name. I pay $60 a month for 500 mb of data and 250 minutes + unltd eve/wknd, and visual voicemail (iPhone). The cost is pretty much identical with whichever you choose, and the service is just as shiat.

You notice how three of the above companies are both the keepers of the wireless spectrum and providers of home cable? (And of course, the odd man out, Shaw, colludes with Rogers anyhow, so much so that they swapped markets like putting on a pair of pants), You can't farking escape them. You have to go and bend over and get farked by at least one of these companies every month.

So here's Netflix Canada, which is streaming only, provides a pathetically small collection of shows next to its US counterpart (partially because when a broadcast company has the rights to air a show, that includes internet and everything else, and ties it up for years). But it's still awesome. I'm always kinda mad at it, but always happy to have it. It's the only real 'pay for unlimited shows' provider in Canada, because Amazon, Hulu, none of them give two shiats about getting tangled in our mess. Now that Bell wants to put its shows on its own 'pay for shows' streaming provider, I'm sure Netflix will lose a lot of its content. And Bell will probably want to charge premium amounts or force advertising in it, because they know they can fark us again and again and again, and we can't leave. Then will come the others and sooner or later it's just like regular cable TV again.

My point is this: I hope Netflix eats the other guys for lunch and then kicks them in the testicles hard. Keep up the fight - you'll still get my $8 a month.

log_jammin:insano: This may not have affected you but it pissed off a lot of their customers. How soon we forget.

Oh I totally remember when that happened. the whining over it still makes me chuckle.

I'm not whining. I never used Netflix in the first place. People were right to complain at the time though. They had a service they liked at a set price; Netflix decided to charge them more for the same services; many of them left because of it.

The current system just makes piracy very appealing. No one wants to have to deal with multiple accounts through multiple services just to get access to what they want. Make it simple and people will buy in - look at the success of iTunes, it has virtually everything, and for many people it's the go-to source for music. I don't want to juggle accounts with Netflix, Amazon, WB, Sony, and whoever else, I just want to pay one company one amount (even if it's more than the other amounts combined) and be able to have access to everything without a hassle.

insano:log_jammin: insano: Naturally, this will be accompanied by an increase in monthly fees for streaming. It's the netflix way!

huh. my bill for streaming hasn't increased since....ever.

When Netflix started charging separate fees for streaming and dvd rental and changing their subscription plans, they ipso facto raised prices on many of their customers. They did this without offering concurrent increases in the services they offered. In fact, they lost quite a bit of content around the same time if I remember correctly. This may not have affected you but it pissed off a lot of their customers. How soon we forget.

Didn't the increase in service happen when they added their streaming service to begin with? I wasn't using Netflix then so I don't know, but did everyone get an increased fee when streaming was first added? If not, then everyone who was already signed up basically got a free ride for streaming and had no right to complain when streaming was later charged separately. A low fee for both streaming and DVDs is too good a deal to make sound economic sense, you should have better sense than to expect that.

B.L.Z. Bub:frostus: It's not like their streaming selection is all that great to start with.

As someone who has watched all of Blackadder and Futurama and most of Cheers and The Office (UK) through Netflix streaming, I declare you to be talking out of your ass.

I enjoyed Saxondale, Todd Margaret (some of it was sick beyond description but some of it was hilarious; not for everybody), and the Bambi episode of the Young Ones. Lots of other Brit comedy stuff too.

frostus:B.L.Z. Bub: frostus: It's not like their streaming selection is all that great to start with.

As someone who has watched all of Blackadder and Futurama and most of Cheers and The Office (UK) through Netflix streaming, I declare you to be talking out of your ass.

I don't watch TV on Netflix, I'm talking movies. And their streaming movie selection kinda blows which is why I have both DVD and streaming.

I used to have streaming for documentaries. I watched one on WWI that started off pointing out that the Crown Prince assassinated by the Serbs had announced he was going to create a United States of Austria smack dab in the middle of Europe. I've wondered since then who might have paid the Serbs to kill off a leader that was about to change the political and economic framework of Europe.

The series ended by pointing out that the casualty rates in 1918 exceeded those of the "bad" years in the war.

There is some very limited audience material available on Netflix DVD.

"We are selective about what's available to watch on Netflix. We often license TV shows and movies on an exclusive basis, so we can provide a unique experience. We'll forego, or choose not renew, titles that aren't watched enough. We always use our knowledge about what our members love to watch to decide what's available on Netflix. Our goal is to be an expert programmer, offering a mix that delights our members, rather than trying to be a broad distributor."

Note to suit: Your movie selection delights no one.

If this is your goal, you are not reaching your goal.

/ TV is good though. well worth it for someone who is awake by himself on his off days waiting for his wife to wake up.

It'll be awesome when every content producer holds onto all their own stuff, exclusively for their own overpriced Netflix-like service, and they all go bankrupt while wondering why they have no subscribers.

/just like EA pulling all of their games from Steam to make them Origin exclusive, and subsequently having a terrible financial year and firing their CEO

My parents have a streaming Netflix account and I "piggyback" on theirs. Not long after they started, my dad asked me if I knew how to delete the most recently watched movies. I asked him for his ipad to see if I could figure it out. It turns out that my dad likes watching more adult-oriented movies that have sexy women on the cover, and he didn't want my mom to be bugging him about it. I tried for a while and could never figure out how to get the most recently watched movies to disappear off the list.

So several weeks ago, I was having dinner at my parents home. After dinner, we were talking about Netflix and my mom made a joke about me watching a lot of "sexy movies" because she saw them on the recently watched list. (fwiw, I have never watched a sexy movie on Netflix) I looked at my dad and he was giving me an embarrassed smile, so I took the bullet for him by making a joke about "I watch those kinds of movies because of the great dialog". As I was leaving their house, my dad quietly told me, "Thanks." I told him, "Hey, I'm married too so I understand." It was kind of a cool bonding moment.

My parents have a streaming Netflix account and I "piggyback" on theirs. Not long after they started, my dad asked me if I knew how to delete the most recently watched movies. I asked him for his ipad to see if I could figure it out. It turns out that my dad likes watching more adult-oriented movies that have sexy women on the cover, and he didn't want my mom to be bugging him about it. I tried for a while and could never figure out how to get the most recently watched movies to disappear off the list.

So several weeks ago, I was having dinner at my parents home. After dinner, we were talking about Netflix and my mom made a joke about me watching a lot of "sexy movies" because she saw them on the recently watched list. (fwiw, I have never watched a sexy movie on Netflix) I looked at my dad and he was giving me an embarrassed smile, so I took the bullet for him by making a joke about "I watch those kinds of movies because of the great dialog". As I was leaving their house, my dad quietly told me, "Thanks." I told him, "Hey, I'm married too so I understand." It was kind of a cool bonding moment.

Probably won't help you now, but at least on the PS3, the history is only like 10 entries long. After checking out High School of the Dead, I thought it might be a good idea to shuffle that box art off the front and center of Netflix, as my mom was coming over that weekend and she'd asked if I could give her a quick Instant Queue tutorial. I just loaded up a few episodes here, a documentary there, and a few movies. Closed and relaunched the app, and it was good to go.

We just moved from Chicago to California. I've decided to pass on Cable for now and try the streaming services.

I signed up for Hulu+ initially so I could watch all seasons of "The Shield". Now I've found we can watch our shows the day after. Since my wife never realized what days our shows were on, it works out fine.

But the overlap between Hulu/Prime/Netflix makes me wonder which service we should be dropping.

My parents have a streaming Netflix account and I "piggyback" on theirs. Not long after they started, my dad asked me if I knew how to delete the most recently watched movies. I asked him for his ipad to see if I could figure it out. It turns out that my dad likes watching more adult-oriented movies that have sexy women on the cover, and he didn't want my mom to be bugging him about it. I tried for a while and could never figure out how to get the most recently watched movies to disappear off the list.

So several weeks ago, I was having dinner at my parents home. After dinner, we were talking about Netflix and my mom made a joke about me watching a lot of "sexy movies" because she saw them on the recently watched list. (fwiw, I have never watched a sexy movie on Netflix) I looked at my dad and he was giving me an embarrassed smile, so I took the bullet for him by making a joke about "I watch those kinds of movies because of the great dialog". As I was leaving their house, my dad quietly told me, "Thanks." I told him, "Hey, I'm married too so I understand." It was kind of a cool bonding moment.

Probably won't help you now, but at least on the PS3, the history is only like 10 entries long. After checking out High School of the Dead, I thought it might be a good idea to shuffle that box art off the front and center of Netflix, as my mom was coming over that weekend and she'd asked if I could give her a quick Instant Queue tutorial. I just loaded up a few episodes here, a documentary there, and a few movies. Closed and relaunched the app, and it was good to go.

I tried that too, but it seemed like on the ipad, the app was inconsistent about how long I had to watch a movie before it would appear on the recently watched list. Sometimes the movie would appear on the list after watching for 30 seconds or so, and other movies, I'd let run for a few minutes, then when I checked the queue again it still wouldn't be on it. Eventually I just gave up.

No biggie. This is where sticking to Netflix and ignoring the various other services popping up solely to pitch a single company's media IP pays off. Later, when Warner doesn't realize the profits they expect to reap by dumping Netflix and pushing their own, more expensive, more limited service, Netflix can wait for them to catch a clue, come back, and negotiate a more favorable contract.

marcre3363:We just moved from Chicago to California. I've decided to pass on Cable for now and try the streaming services.

I signed up for Hulu+ initially so I could watch all seasons of "The Shield". Now I've found we can watch our shows the day after. Since my wife never realized what days our shows were on, it works out fine.

But the overlap between Hulu/Prime/Netflix makes me wonder which service we should be dropping.

Hulu's a relative waste of time. Keep Netflix, at a minimum - I'm unfamiliar with "Prime", so I can't give you useful advice either way.